A parish for all people in the heart of Portland, Oregon.
Sermons
Every week at Grace, a preacher breaks open the Word and offers insights into the Good News. Below is a list of the sermons from Grace Memorial for 2021.
“And these words seemed to them an idle tale.” Welcome to Easter, friends.Welcome to the moment when idle tales prove true.Welcome to the season of imagination,when we are invited to believe the unbelievable,because doing so teaches us something about love. I rise up this morningSmile with the rising sunThree little birdsBeside my doorstepSinging sweet songsAContinue reading “Easter Vigil Sermon by The Rev. Matthew David Morris”
In the name of the crucified Christ. Two questions for us to ponder this evening: The first is: Why must Christ suffer and die? If Jesus is divine, a powerful spiritual prophet of God, God’s messenger to humanity, who has come to bring life and salvation, why does God let him die? This was aContinue reading “Good Friday Sermon by The Rev. Corbet Clark”
April 10, 2022 Isaiah 50:4-9aPhilippians 2:5-11Luke 22:14-23:56Psalm 31:9-16 Martin Elfert April 10 2022 Palm Sunday Luke 19:28-40 Isaiah 50:4-9a Philippians 2:5-11 Psalm 31:9-16 (Luke 22:14-23:56 – Passion Reading at the service’s conclusion) * Chapter One Once upon a time there was a king. Well, strictly speaking the king was not actually a king. He wasContinue reading “Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday by The Rev. Martin Elfert”
April 3, 2022 Isaiah 43:16-21Philippians 3:4b-14John 12:1-8Psalm 126 SERMON FOR LENT FIVE: GOSPEL 12: 1-8 We all live within a mystery. We live…that is a mystery. We live within a creation that is so vast we cannot even get our minds around its vastness. That is a mystery. We live in a mystery that placesContinue reading “The Fifth Sunday of Lent by The Rev. Dick Toll”
March 20, 2022 Exodus 3:1-151 Corinthians 10:1-13Luke 13:1-9Psalm 63:1-8 Jesus is hanging with his people, and a few of them bring up a horrific story; something we can assume is, for them, common knowledge. If it was today, this is the kind of story that would have already shown up on all of your socialContinue reading “The Third Sunday in Lent by The Rev. Matthew David Morris”
February 6, 2022 Isaiah 6:1-8-131 Corinthians 15:1-11Luke 5:1-11Psalm 138 The River Breaks Up Every Year, and It’s Still Around Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany, Year C February 6, 2022 Shirley M. Banks Grace-Memorial Episcopal Church, Portland, Oregon In the name of the Holy One, Amen. I come to you this morning at Martin’s gracious invitation.Continue reading “The Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany by Shirley Banks”
Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a Luke 4:14-21 Psalm 19 Aesop was a slave and storyteller who lived, tradition says, in Ancient Greece somewhere between the years 620 and 564 before the common era. Aesop’s Fables, some of you may remember, are a collection of stories attributed to Aesop that inspire the listener to reflect on the ethical dilemmas of human life. Listen toContinue reading “The Third Sunday after Epiphany by the Rev. Matthew David Morris”
Jeremiah 31:7-14Ephesians 1:3-6,15-19aLuke 2:41-52Psalm 84 or 84:1-8 Sermon for Epiphany 1 January 9th 2022 Luke 3:15-17, 21-22 How are we changed by Baptism? By Rev. Dr. Elizabeth Klein Good morning and a warm welcome to each one of you online and here in in the nave this morning. We are so blessed to have thisContinue reading “The First Sunday after Epiphany by Liz Klein”
Jeremiah 33:14-16 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13 Luke 21:25-36 Psalm 25:1-9 Today is the day when we name, in worship, that we are the stewards of this place that we call Grace Memorial. In particular, this is the day when you and I are invited bring forward to the altar an outward visible sign of our financialContinue reading “The First Sunday of Advent by Martin Elfert”
Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14 Psalm 93 Revelation 1:4b-8 John 18:33-37 Through much of high school I imagined that I was going to be an actor or, possibly, a director or playwright. I was in a bunch of shows, I directed my classmates in several shows, and I actually wrote several shows. (I haven’t seen the scriptsContinue reading “The Twenty-Sixth Sunday After Pentecost by Martin Elfert”
Daniel 12:1-3Psalm 16Hebrews 10:11-14 (15-18) 19-25Mark 13:1-8 We want to know how things end. How pandemics end. How interpersonal conflicts end. How the world––whatever world we currently occupy––ends. There has always been a desire to know the ending. I’ve had a lot of cause to think about endings this year. In January, me and myContinue reading “The Twenty-Fifth Sunday After Pentecost by Matthew David Morris”
Lessons: Isaiah 53:4-12Psalm 91:9-16Hebrews 5:1-10Mark 10:35-45 Here we are. Here we are, together. Just like we planned. We last worshipped in this space, together, what was it? Two weeks ago, three weeksago? And now everything is back to normal. Right? Well, that was how it was supposed to go. I remember us saying to oneContinue reading “Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost by The Rev. Martin Elfert”
Lessons: Numbers 21:4-9 Ephesians 2:1-10 John 3:14-21 Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22 The Reverend Richard Schaper studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. He also studied philosophy and religion at Colgate University, theology at the University of Chicago, ethics at Yale University, financial planning at Golden Gate University and the management of nonprofitContinue reading “Fourth Sunday in Lent by the Rev. Richard Schaper”
Lessons: Deuteronomy 18:15-201 Corinthians 8:1-13Mark 1:21-28Psalm 111 What do you expect it to be like when you meet Jesus? And then: what is it like when you actually meet Jesus? We are early on the Gospel of Mark. Mark is the shortest Gospel, it is probably the oldest, and it is the one that tellsContinue reading “Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany by The Rev. Martin Elfert”
Lessons: Jeremiah 31:7-14 Ephesians 1:3-6,15-19a Matthew 2:13-15,19-23 Psalm 84 or 84:1-8 My public school career began a handful of years before the video cassette became commonplace. And so my early experience with watching films in a classroom featured a member of the AV Club rolling a cart with a projector on it into the room.Continue reading “Second Sunday after Christmas by The Rev. Martin Elfert”
Lessons: Exodus 17:1-7 Romans 5:1-11 John 4:5-42 Psalm 95 The Samaritan woman can see someone at the well as she approaches…a man, she realizes, as she gets closer. The text doesn’t say, but given the time of day it’s not unlikely that they would have been the only two people at the well. Most would’veContinue reading “Third Sunday in Lent by Suzy Jeffreys”
Lessons: Genesis 12:1-4a Romans 4:1-5, 13-17 John 3:1-17 Psalm 121 Life begins in water. Life begins in the dark. This is true biologically. Our lives all begin in the water and darkness of our mother’s bodies. We are water creatures first, floating with eyes sealed shut as our bodies are knit together cell byContinue reading “The Second Sunday in Lent by The Rev. Jeanne Kaliszewski”
Lessons: Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 Romans 5:12-19 Matthew 4:1-11 Psalm 32 This is the story of the man, the woman, the snake, and God. God has set up this garden, this paradise. In it, there is everything a human being could need, everything that a human being could want. The weather is so pleasant and theContinue reading “The First Sunday in Lent by The Rev. Martin Elfert”
Lessons: Joel 2:1-2,12-17 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10 Matthew 6:1-6,16-21 Psalm 103 Have you ever had the chance to work with an improv group? They have this technique for working together, a way to communicate and support each other live onstage in order to move the action forward. It’s called YES AND. Let me give you anContinue reading “Ash Wednesday by Holly Puckett”
Lessons: Deuteronomy 30:15-20 1 Corinthians 3:1-9 Matthew 5:21-37 Psalm 119:1-8 It is very near the end of the Israelites’ journey through the wilderness, very near the end of the forty years that the twelve tribes have spent wandering and searching, now lost and now found, always somehow guided by God. And the aged Moses, 120Continue reading “The Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany by The Rev. Martin Elfert”
Lessons: Malachi 3:1-4 Hebrews 2:14-18 Luke 2:22-40 Psalm 84 It feels a little like Christmas to me right now. Maybe it’s the candles. Maybe it is the story we heard from Luke this morning, this story of the baby Jesus. Because we really only encounter baby Jesus at Christmastime. We even have on whiteContinue reading “The Presentation of Our Lord by The Rev. Jeanne Kaliszewski”
Lessons: Isaiah 9:1-4 1 Corinthians 1:10-18 Matthew 4:12-23 Psalm 27:1, 5-13 I’ve been happily retired for a year and a half now, with no plans to go back to teaching, but somehow this September I ended up back in the classroom at my old school, for a three month substitute job. When the offer cameContinue reading “The Third Sunday after the Epiphany by The Rev. Corbet Clark”
Lessons: Isaiah 49:1-7 1 Corinthians 1:1-9 John 1:29-42 Psalm 40:1-12 If you have ever taken an acting class – maybe in high school, maybe in university, maybe somewhere else – then you will likely have done the exercise of selecting a short line of text and seeing how many different ways that you can sayContinue reading “Second Sunday after the Epiphany by The Rev. Martin Elfert”
Lessons: Isaiah 42:1-9 Acts 10:34-43 Matthew 3:13-17 Psalm 29 I was baptized when I was 4 or 5 and dressed in a scratchy dress and tight shoes. I stood at the front of an Episcopal congregation along with my younger brother and sister. The priest went to baptize us and screwed up my name….he transposedContinue reading “First Sunday after the Epiphany by the Rev. Jeanne Kaliszewski”
Lessons: Jeremiah 31:7-14 Ephesians 1:3-6,15-19a Matthew 2:13-15,19-23 Psalm 84 A remarkable number of Christmas carols and Christmas songs and Christmas hymns have a wistful, melancholic, plain-old sad side to them. In the Bleak Midwinter and The Little Drummer Boy are both sung in the voice of one who knows poverty: What can I give him,Continue reading “The Second Sunday after Christmas by The Rev. Martin Elfert”
Lessons: Isaiah 61:10-62:3 Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7 John 1:1-18 Psalm 147 When our first child, Gwen, had just turned 4, I asked her to take her plate to the sink after dinner. We have this built in nook in our kitchen with a bench, and she stood up on the upholstered green cushion with her plateContinue reading “The First Sunday after Christmas Day by The Rev. Jeanne Kaliszewski”
